Hi everyone! My name is Jenn, and I’m new to the Cocoa Daisy team. I am beyond thrilled and honored to have been selected to be a part of this team, and I’m so excited to spend this time with you sharing our love for all things Cocoa Daisy!

I’m going to use this post to share a bit about myself, as well as to share with you my current planner setup. One of my favorite things about Cocoa Daisy is the flexibility in adapting the products to any planner layout I’m using! I love that I can switch my inserts and layouts and still find a use for every single thing that comes in the gorgeous Cocoa Daisy box!

First, a little about me: I’m a stay at home, homeschooling mom of five. I have been married for almost 15 years to my high school sweetheart, and we’ve been together for 18 years. He is a pastor, which means our lives can be a bit unpredictable at times, because he may need to go be with a member of our church or help out with something or take a phone call during dinner, or a million other things that comes with life in ministry! It’s beyond worth it though, and such a blessing. Our children are 13, 11, 9, 7 (his birthday was yesterday!) and an almost 3 year old who keeps us all laughing. Like I said, I homeschool my kids. We use a program called Classical Conversations, and I’m constantly awed at how amazing this curriculum is and how much we are learning. (I love that I’m still learning too!) I love to read books, go to movies, and swim. The beach is my happy place – something about the ocean just brings such awe and peace to my heart. Everywhere I go, I have my planner with me.

I have been a planner my entire life. I still have my old junior high agendas packed away in a box somewhere, and while cleaning out my spare room closet the other day, I found my planner from the year after I got married! It was so funny looking back and seeing how I planned back then. I’ve always loved color coding, and my system switched from color coding by activity to color coding by person once I started having kids. I discovered the online planner world at the end of 2014 and started joining facebook groups, and the rest was history! I started decorating my planner more and went through all the phases of trying to find my planning style and perfect planner. It took almost no time to realize that my perfect planner is a personal size ring bound planner. The flexibility of adding, taking away, and changing sections whenever I want is exactly what my life needs. Finding my actual planning style, however, has taken a bit longer,  but I’m getting there!

For almost a year now, I’ve been using a Foxy Fix ring  binder. I ordered it on Launch Day, and I’ve used it ever since. Prior to that I used several different brands of ring binders, and Foxy Fix is by far my favorite. I love the fact that the rings are so large, and I like that the extra width of the binder allows me to use wider inserts than standard personal size. I’ve been using personal wide inserts for several months now, and I love that I can take the b6 Cocoa Daisy inserts and cut them and adapt them to fit into my planner.

I recently tried a planner hack that I saw online. I took the rings out of my planner and secured them in a Foxy traveler’s notebook using the strings. So far, I’m really loving it. It gives me a bit more space to stuff my rings since I can use the elastic closure instead of the snap closure.  I am using a Foxy Fix no 8 for sizing reference with the Cocoa Daisy b6 inserts.

So, enough introduction. Are you ready to dive into my planner setup? I hope so, because here we go!

Here is a picture of the outside of my planner. You’ll notice over this next year that pink is my favorite color!

The view on the inside of my planner =)

As you can see, I went ahead and set up my planner with the March Cocoa Daisy kit! I just couldn’t wait – this kit is too gorgeous. I’ve tried and tried, but I still can’t get a picture that shows how rich and vibrant these colors are. The entire kit is stunning! I know a lot of people have been using a bolder color planner with this kit, but I think the kit really pops against the soft ballerina pink. It really brings a smile to my face every time I open my planner!

In the front pockets I just have some bits from the kit. I stuck the notepad in the front pocket so I can jot a note down anytime I need to, then I used a clip to secure the “Shine bright” card at the top. One of the die cuts is peeking out of the side pocket, and I printed and double laminated one of the free printables to give the front some structure.

How unbelievably gorgeous is this first divider? I knew right away that this would be the first divider – I wanted it to be the first thing I see when I open my planner. This divider holds my first section.

My first section is my Inbox. This is a recently added section in my planner. I was randomly writing down things and sticking them in the pockets, or jotting things down in the notes section and then losing that when I tossed the old notes pages. It was a jumbled mess. So I printed off one of the free Cocoa Daisy printables, then laminated and punched it. Now I use a sticky note (the one included in the Cocoa Daisy kit) to keep things right here in the first section in my planner. Things that go here are things that require action (fill out papers, stop by here, etc), while things that are just general notes and to-dos (gift ideas, stuff I want done around the house) go in my Notes section, which you’ll see in a minute. This Inbox section is great, because it includes all the stuff I want to see as soon as I open my planner. Stuff that needs done right away, current favorite quotes or verses of a song that’s stuck in my head, etc – basically anything that needs to be at the forefront of my brain, whether it’s something that needs done or something I want to remind myself of. I also keep the current month’s Cocoa Daisy IG Planner Challenge in this section, so I have it right at my fingertips. (As you can see, I’m still half in February CD, which  makes me so happy. All the pink and floral and Simon! You can also see I accidentally printed this insert in personal instead of b6, and I just decided to roll with it!) I’m trying really hard to make it a habit to open to this section every single time I open my planner, even if I’m grabbing my planner for a specific reason that has nothing to do with what’s in this section. Because I’ve discovered over the years that my memory is terrible (my best friends call me Dory), and that the odds are good that there is something noted down in this section that contains an answer to what I’m looking for! If I have to, I plan on printing and laminating another freebie to give me more space!!

My next section is the Calendar section (I’m using the “Hello March” divider label for this section and I absolutely love it. I think it’s so cute.) This section holds many subsections: Monthly, Weekly (week on 1 page used as my main overview and vertical week on two pages for listing, to-dos, habits, etc), and a Daily section for those busy days when I just need more space. Typically when I divide a section in to subsection I use different tabs to break it up. As you can tell, I used the majority of the Cocoa Daisy tabs to make side tabs for my dividers. But I took two more tabs and made specific top tabs (I attached them to a printable and laminated then added some extra decorations.)

My next section is my Notes section. This is a catch all section where I make notes from phone calls, keep lists of gift ideas, etc. Typically what I do is just designate a page for a purpose and grab a pretty sticker to label it. So if it’s a phone call page, I’ll jot down notes from phone calls, numbers I’ve been given to call, etc.

I also have a prayer section in here. I use a tab I created from a printable from my fellow team member, Tricia (@madewithlovecrafter). This is always in my planner no matter the theme or kit I’m using. (And it’s gorgeous so it’s always a joy to look at!). I use this page to jot down notes at church about prayer requests people have, anything they might have coming up (an appointment that week or something), and even things my friends and other people talk to me about. I refer to this daily and follow up with what I’ve written down. This section is so handy to me to have and I use it often.

My next section is my “Social” section. Here’s where I keep inserts to track what I need to do as part of the Cocoa Daisy team, blog ideas for upcoming blogs on here (as well as my personal blog, although I have done a terrible job writing for that the past couple of months), and a log of what I need to post and when. I also have inserts to track YouTube video ideas. I don’t have any videos yet, but I’m so excited about starting some and sharing them with you here! As you can see, I used a top tab in this section as well. And then I cut the “Cocoa Daisy” name out on the sticker sheet and used it as a label. This is where I’ll track all of my activity for the team this year!

My next section is my “Personal” section. This is divided into subsections as well – Gratitude/Blessings and Finance. It’s funny that I put them in the same section but these are both things that are more personal and wont just leave around open for anyone to find. The first thing you see in this section is a collage insert of some of my favorite images and quotes. I have another one at the end of this section as well.

Behind that are my Cocoa Daisy b6 inserts. I am using these for a daily gratitude/blessing/journal log. They come as a b6 dori insert. I removed the staples, cut the insert down the middle, rounded the corners, and punched to put in my rings. At the end of the month, I put them in another set of rings I have so they all stay together, and at the end of the year I think I am going to go to Staples and have them bound together into one book. I absolutely can’t wait for that and to have an entire year of thankfulness bound up in one book!

After that I have some finance inserts. This is by no means my official financial book – just a way for me to track some online spending, our cash envelope spending, etc.

My very last section is my “Stickers” section. I punched some sticker sheets from different shops to carry in my planner. It’s just fun to have some stickers with me for on the go planning. Behind that is a folder that is technically made for a b6 tn. I just hole punched it and stuck it in the back. I hold additional stickers in here (that maybe couldn’t be punched). I also keep a fold out world map back here (it’s amazing how many times I pull this out and use it! My kids want to know where EVERYTHING is!)

That’s it! That’s my main planner! This goes with me everywhere I go. I honestly couldn’t make it without it, because it’s my brain. I keep so much information in it, and I really try to write things down as soon as I know about them, because if I don’t, I won’t remember it.

So that’s it! That’s my planner setup! I’m sorry this post was so long, but I hope you enjoyed this walk through! If you have any questions, leave them in the comments! I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and can’t wait to share more with you as the year goes on!

Jenn
@GracefulPlanner